"Not In The Book!"

Published: Thu, 10/07/21

Anyone who's watched a movie adaptation of a beloved novel with me knows I am not a fan of change. It would make a pretty good drinking game for everyone to take a shot every time I yelled "Not in the book!" at the TV screen. And when it comes to music, I'm clearly more about standing still or traveling backwards than about breaking new ground. Or so I've always pictured myself, until I had to start looking more consciously at how I actually play guitar.

Let me preface this by saying I'm aware how in the weeds it is to be parsing the nuances of fingerstyle guitar. It's a niche (technique) within a sub-genre (acoustic blues) within a genre (blues) that's already unbelievably marginal, for all that people like me (and presumably you) love it to pieces. So from the outside, whatever I'm about to delineate is, I realize, barely consequential except to those of us operating inside said niche/sub-genre/genre.

That said, here's what I've noticed. Since making a conscious choice about two decades ago to rely on fingerstyle technique rather than a pick for my own songwriting and performing purposes, and realizing about five years ago I felt most at home playing acoustic rather than electric guitar, I've been slowly attempting to punch my way out of the paper bag that is the alternating thumb style. While committed to acoustic fingerstyle guitar as my vehicle of choice, I didn't want to be limited to only the most obvious fingerpicking patterns, or or remain cut off from grooves more likely to be played with a pick. As a result, all kinds of weirder, semi-tangible techniques have crept into my playing, things I didn't even notice I was doing until I started teaching regularly again. Most of them have to do with creating something more syncopated and subdivided, with more independence between the bass and everything else. Three things in particular have helped the most to achieve that:
  1. Palm muting. Without it, things sound like arpeggiated patterns. With it, you can start distinguishing between a bass groove and independent melodies, licks and/or chords on top.
  2. Damped notes in the bass. Playing damped bass notes on beats 2 and/or 4 with your thumb frees up your left hand to reach for more licks and voicings on top, and to venture out of open position to do so.
  3. Damped notes in the middle register. Playing damped notes on the third string with your index finger allows you to keep a groove going with percussive, syncopated hits on the offbeats without adding more notes in the melody.
The main alternative to the alternating thumb style is the steady or monotonic bass, and I've worked on ways to make that more interesting, too, using that steady bass to play walking bass lines or harmonizing those bass lines with Freddie Green voicings. But both the alternating thumb and steady bass approach still involve putting a bass note – damped, walked or otherwise – on every strong beat: the 1, 2, 3 and 4. Things don't really get different until you try and syncopate the bass. I posted a lesson back in August on playing blues licks over a syncopated bass line in E. There was enough positive response – and I was sufficiently intrigued myself – that today I'm posting a lesson on putting blues licks and various double stops over a syncopated bass in A minor. You can find it at the link below:

Blues Licks Over A Syncopated Bass In A Minor

And you can download the tab here:

Get the Tab

More soon,

David

P.S. If you're interested in taking your fingerstyle blues beyond basic picking patterns to play tunes, grooves and more, go to www.fretboardconfidential.com to learn about the clear, organized lessons and in-depth live streams available in my monthly membership, The Fingerstyle Five.